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Commission moves to extend paving contract and hears public works candidatepitch for a county pavement-management program
Summary
Commissioners approved adding Orchard Road and Walters Road to the current paving contract and heard an in-depth presentation by Justin, a public works director candidate, who outlined a pavement-management plan and asset-management tools tied to SPLOST planning.
Hart County commissioners voted to add two short sections—Orchard Road and Walters/Walter Grove Road—to the county's current paving contract and spent significant time hearing from a candidate for the county's public works director position about a countywide pavement-management program.
Staff described the Orchard Road segments as having 12–17 inches of base in places and said the contractor could incorporate them into the current tonnage-based contract. A motion to add the roads was seconded and the board approved the change during the meeting.
Later the board introduced an applicant for public works director who identified his background as public works director in Oakwood and described 21-plus years of experience in public works, pavement management and asset management. He proposed a program that would gather high-resolution imagery, run a PCI (pavement condition index) assessment across county roads, and produce district-level maps to prioritize treatments and budget planning tied to SPLOST cycles. "The end goal is to maximize your constituents' tax dollars to maximize the road miles," he said, describing data collection and AI-assisted mapping that could yield a multi-year program for budgeting and contract planning.
Commissioners discussed timelines and noted staffing and equipment shortfalls in the road department, the need for standard operating procedures and succession planning, and the potential to align a pavement-management plan with upcoming SPLOST programming. One commissioner suggested giving the candidate 90 days for onboarding and a target of having a draft program within six months to inform budgeting.
A commissioner moved to allow the candidate to begin work promptly; the record indicates support to expedite onboarding although the transcript does not record a formal roll-call hiring vote in open session at that moment. Commissioners also discussed stabilizing in-progress work and the operational challenges raised by heavy truck traffic on secondary roads.
